The portrait of Isabel de Borbón de Velázquez returns to the meadow after its restoration with scars, grafts and added

The equestrian portrait of Isabel de Borbón, from Velázquez, has returned to room 12 of the National Museum of the Prado after its restoration, last October, with scars, fabric grafts and added of side bands to the left and right of the monarch.

The painting has remained in its four centuries in the “cozy environment” of the real collections and the conservation problems they presented were not due to “abusive”, explained the head of the Spanish painting of the Baroque of the Pinacoteca, Javier Portús, but he did have problems related to the “circumstances” of his creation.

Specifically, around 1634, Velázquez himself and the disciples of his workshop added and painted two wide side bands-of 30 centimeters each-to adapt the canvas to the space in which he would be placed, in the Palacio del Buen Retiro.

The material of these bands, and the pigments with “significantly different” chemicals, led to a discoloration, which added to a series of subsequent replacements with oil, which intended to correct “specific” damage, make up the main problems.

In addition, as explained by the restorative of the painting, María Álvarez-Garcillán, the portrait on horseback of the queen-which is part of a set of four other portraits of Velázquez to Felipe III, Margarita de Austria and Felipe IV– was installed in a stay of the good retreat that invaded the hole of the lateral porterships-following the tendency of the time of the era of the era of the era of the time of the time of the time Leave no space without taking advantage of.

Therefore, to prevent this door could not open, the decision was made to cut a lower square of the paint, overcome it at the door and sew it, achieving the desired effect: when the door opened, the fabric was separated, but once closed it seemed that the portrait was complete. “When he closed, he hidden,” Portús said.

Despite the restoration, the scar left by the nails, the rope thread holes-which was used to sew this separation-, the additions, and the fabric grafts, continues to be part of the canvas, although it is not easily visible to the eye of the visitor.

When the paint was off the palace of the good retirement to take it to the Royal Palace, in 1775, the cut pieces of the side bands were recovered and reintegrated, Andrés de la Calleja reinforced them. It will be in the years 2010 and 2011, with all the “scars” of painting, when a technical investigation begins to be able to carry out the necessary work with “full knowledge of cause.”

“There is no time when Velázquez worked so much”

Although the author of the portrait is Velázquez, the truth is that he delegated the creation of this painting in several of his collaborators, such as Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, because the commission arrived at a time of much work for the painter.

“In less than a year, in 1675, Velázquez has to face and solve five equestrian portraits and orders related to the Royal House. There is probably no time in his career as an artist where he had to work so much. To do it, he had to resort to collaborators,” Portús explained.

Thus, a working method was established by which Velázquez was entirely in charge of the most “important”-the King Felipe IV and the heir prince Baltasar Carlos-and designed the composition of the portrait of Isabel de Borbón, although he delegated his execution.

However, Portús has warned, it was a “very guarded” delegation, which has had consequences from the point of view of painting conservation, because several corrections can be seen-on the legs of the horse and the neck, as well as in the vegetation.

“It was a guarded delegation because Velázquez intervened, and in an important way: correcting, rectifying and monitoring the entire process. That has had consequences from the point of view of the state of conservation of the works, to the extent that the superposition of so many layers within the execution of a work, which over time, emerge,” said the head of the Spanish painting collection of the museum of the museum.